Not real talkative. I have some ideas for posts, one a reaction to a post I read this last weekend. I have impressions of here to write about. Mostly I'm settling in and the reality is beginning to dawn that I am in a really different place. My attempts at Spanish are worse, mostly I don't even try. It is amazing how much can be communicated about basic needs via gestures and common enough words to get by. It is amazing how tiring it is to not be able to just talk to most of the people i deal with everyday. I keep directing friends to my blog for updates rather than long personal emails. I'm just plain tired of attempting to communicate lately. Skype is great and the list of friends and family I skype with grows. But even it is tiring, trying to find something new to talk about. I need the connection, but at the same time it tires me. I just don't have energy to put into long distance communication individually, even as I absolutely need the connections more than I ever have.
Maybe tomorrow I'll do the '10 things I need' post. Some of the priorities in the list have shifted from my experience so far down here in Honduras. Another feature down here I want to post that is unrelated to most other things I post about is the workers I see every day on the drive to and from work. It is a straight, mostly flat 2 lane road. There aren't shoulders like in the US. The shoulders are for the laboring people to walk or ride bikes on. Unpaved bike lanes, if you will. On the Old Fool's blog http://www.oldfool.org/ he really has a thing about 'work bikes'. Ok, he has a thing about bicycles in general. But he enjoys posting pictures of real work bikes when he finds them. It seems that bikes modified to actually haul things are unusual. Down here the bicycles are pretty much all work bikes. Not a lot (read, none) of spandex on the many bicycle riders each day. The primary load I've seen is stacks of wood, sticks and such. Not sure why wood is such an item since heating is not an issue here. Maybe cook fires? One morning I'll try to get a picture for him. It would make his heart glad, I'm sure. Today I even saw a donkey cart. Not a fru-fru painted up cart but a real working wagon with a donkey hooked up to it with some kind of wooden saddle looking thing across his back. I think I've seen that donkey tied up along side of the road on other days. It isn't unusual to have livestock such as a horse or donkey or even a cow tied up to a light pole along the road. Most seem very thin by US standards. It is different down here.
Think you might have realized finally.. " We're not in Kansas anymore?" :-) I for one look forward to your post from there. I know you're down there working and not just goofing off, but, post when you can , and about taking pictures of the locals? Ask a local that you trust to give you an honest answer, about how they feel about you taking pictures. Betcha they won't mind at all. I had good luck out of the US with a big smile, pointing at my camera and at the subject with a questioning expression and a head nod. Only got the NO head shake a time or two, at which time I just smiled, nodded and walked away.
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